


Domestic

by perniciousLizard



Series: Fired Up and Bone Weary [31]
Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Cats, Fluff, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-04
Updated: 2017-05-04
Packaged: 2018-10-27 21:03:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,005
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10816713
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/perniciousLizard/pseuds/perniciousLizard
Summary: A strange cat keeps sneaking around Grillby’s house.





	Domestic

**Author's Note:**

> I was given the prompt to write about Grillby in his cats by tabascosugar, and it seemed natural to make it take place in this series.

Grillby sat on the back step of his house, a glass of red wine next to him.  He was the only real light out so late in the evening.  The house was quiet behind him.  

He took a plate out of his inventory and set it down on the steps.  The food on it smelled noxious and heavily of fish.  He moved the bad smelling pellets around on the dish so they rattled.  

Two bright eyes peered out of the bushes, a good distance away from Grillby.  

“………hello,” he said, quiet.  "Good kitten.“  

Slowly, a tiny black cat - maybe a little over a year old - stepped into view.  

Grillby wondered if what he felt could be described as "warm.”  He took one of his homemade cat treats and tossed it across the yard.  The cat ran back into the bushes, but when Grillby stayed where he was, it cautiously approached and sniffed the food on the ground.  It grabbed the kibble and ran back out of view.

Grillby felt the air shift behind him, so he wasn’t startled when he heard:

“hey.”

He turned his head and nodded, once.  It would be rude not to acknowledge Sans at all.  

“somethin’ _kitten_ to you out here?”  Sans snickered.  "you _cat_ something on your mind?“

Grillby gestured at the bushes.  

"want me to bring it over?” he asked, curious.  Sans knelt down and picked up a cat treat off the plate and ate it.  

Grillby waved him back towards the house, irritated.

“yeah.  guess that’s not the best tactic if you want it to like you.  oh well.   guess i just have to do nothing.”  

Sans moved to the other side of Grillby and sipped his wine.  Well, “sipped” was describing his action more elegantly than it deserved.  Sans chugged Grillby’s wine.  "one of those classic pairings, amiright?  gotta have red with the cat food.“

"Go to bed, Sans.”  He waved Sans away again.

“ok, ok, jeez,” Sans said, chuckling.  He leaned down and said “smooch” by Grillby’s head.

“…white.”

“what.”

“You would pair white wine with this.”

“oh.  i’ll take your word for it.  i’d’ve guessed a cold one would go better.  it’s pretty hot out here.”  He winked.

“I will…take _your_ word for it.  I haven’t eaten any,” he admitted.

“wow.  crap service.”

Grillby threw a pellet at Sans’ head.  It missed and bounced off the siding before hitting the ground.  

“you don’t even know if it’s any good, and you’re selling it to customers?  i expected better.”

“I had taste testers.”  His cats would be trying to break down the back door if they knew he had those treats outside.

“still.”

“You owe me five dollars for the two you stole.”  He was counting the one he threw.

“that’s robbery.  two-fifty a piece?  jeez.”  He started patting at his pockets and pulled out a sheet of paper.  It read “iou” in messy comic sans.

Grillby took the paper.

“so put it on my tab.”

The paper went up in flames in Grillby’s hand.  "Those are free samples.  But stop eating cat food.“

"you aren’t my dad.  or my brother.”

“If you eat everything we have, you’ll have to go out and get more.  And do the rest of the grocery shopping.”

“man.  what am i?  your husband or something?”

Grillby sighed, long suffering.  He was.

“heh.  night, grillbz.  don’t stay up too long or you’ll be a pain tomorrow.”

He nodded.  "…good night, Sans."

Once Sans was gone and done making noise, the kitten stepped out of the bushes again. Grillby tossed over another treat.  He repeated this for the next hour, and then went inside leaving the plate and what was left on it on the steps.  It was empty the next morning.

All that week, Grillby spent time outside whenever he could.  The kitten got a little closer every night.  

When the cat got close enough that he could see the small white patch of fur on its chest, he decided he wasn’t going to bed that night.  

It stayed still, watching him carefully for several minutes before approaching the plate.  It scarfed up some food and ran, and then came back and ate until the plate was empty.  Grillby sat as still as he could.  He tried to just be gently warm and not betray his rising joy.  He was already working through names he liked for it in his head.

It sniffed at him and he slowly held out his hand.  It sniffed that, and then allowed him to gently scratch behind its ears.  

The cat looked him over and then suddenly jumped straight into his lap.  It started kneading his legs.  Grillby’s hands hovered.  He flickered with delight, but wasn’t sure what to do.

The cat settled down and Grillby pet its soft fur.  He felt it start to purr, quiet at first, and then like a motor was running inside it.  They stayed that way for five minutes, until the cat jumped off him as abruptly as it had jumped on, and trotted off back towards the bushes.

Grillby needed to start setting out proper food for it, he decided.  It was far too skinny.

What was a good name?  He liked "Carbon,” but he wasn’t sure that cat _felt_ like a Carbon.  The white patch on its fur reminded him of the bright light in Sans’ eye sockets, so he wanted, a little bit, to name it after Sans.  That was a very silly idea, though, especially at his age.  

The cat did remind him of Sans, though, with the careful way he had lured it close with food.

He had an aunt who told him, once, that “the quickest path to a monster’s soul is the one left by the immediately absorbed energy of a well-cooked meal.”  He supposed she was right.

More importantly, though, food was the quickest way into the good graces of a cat.  He sat on the steps for a long time after it left, trying to think up a name.  

**Author's Note:**

> I'm progressing pretty steadily on a long fic in this series, but I'm easily distracted by requests about cats.


End file.
